Intel results and outlook were generally inline. So why is stock down? Analysts say expectations were rising in the last few weeks. The stock got a lift from a J.P. Morgan upgrade earlier this week.

Evercore Partners analyst Patrick Wang tells MarketWatch, “Folks were looking for a pretty healthy beat and raise. They maintained full-year guidance and bulls were looking for a lift in earnings power.”

“It was supposed to be much stronger,” he tells MarketWatch. “Data center is a core component of the bull thesis. They have guided it up in the double digits in 2014 as they originally did for 2013, and look how that turned out.”

Analysts recall how CFO Stacy Smith said in October about Intel’s projections for its data center business, “Don’t pin me down to exactly 10% growth, but we’re giong to be withing spitting distance of that for the year.”

Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein asked why Intel didn’t take full year revenue down, given the more downbeat guidance for the data center business.

CFO Stacy Smith said, “You’re assuming a level of precision around approximately flat that doesn’t exist. Approximately flat can encompass a little bit up, a little bit down.”

“Is the bias more to a little bit down, than a little bit up, at least in November,” Rasgon pressed.

Smith answered: “Again you’re assuming a level of precision that I think isn’t appropriate when you’re talking something that will play out over the next 12 months. We had a positive data point on PCs. We had a little bit of a negative data point on one element of the enterprise. Our tablet momentum looks good. You kind of look at it and I’d say our view is pretty consistent with what it was back in November.”

Rasgon asked: “But you don’t book any revenues on the tablets right.”

At this point, somone said, “Thanks for the question. We’re going to move on to the next questioner.”

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